Blood Brothers
by Avril Stayne
Summary: As quite a young Firestar is told a story by his father about his old life in the Clans, we discover a terrible and bloody genealogy. Please do not read this if you haven't read "Bluestars Prophecy".
1. Chapter 1

**Warning do not read this if you haven't read _Bulestar's Prophecy _yet. **I would much enjoy if you reviewed s'il vous plait, et merci. (that last bit was French by the way, it means 'please and thankyou' I was bored)

**Chapter 1: Old Stories, New Family.**

"Ow! Mama, Rusty's biting my tail!" A small, light brown tabby she cat with a white chest wailed as another young, fiery orange tom had his teeth firmly clamed on his sister's tail. The brown she cat flashed a white tipped paw at the orange one and he jumped off quickly. She then pounced on him and they both fell into a massive heap on the carpeted floor.

The she cat pinned Rusty down with her white front paws and stood over him proudly. Even through her tail was lashing, she purred.

"Stop it Princess, you know I just ate lunch, I'm not as good as before, you just got lucky!" The fiery kitten resisted his sister. He went limp and she pulled off him. Then when she had her guard down, he pounced at her and bit hard on her ear. Princess squealed in real pain Rusty knew he was in trouble.

"Rusty, how many times have I told you!" A furious voice came down from the top of the dining room table. A tabby and white she cat jumped down gracefully, anger fuming from her blue eyes. Rusty quickly let go and backed away from Princess, whose soft kit fur was ruffled and spiked in odd places. Their mother pulled her daughter under her and glared at Rusty furiously. "Rusty, you know how I don't like the way you fight so roughly" The orange kitten curled into himself shamefully. He wanted to explain that he couldn't control it, something inside him just wanted him to know how to fight like a…like a warrior.

"I'm-I'm sorry mother, I- just…can't help it." Came Rusty's feeble voice. The brown tabby she cat's mood changed for her son. And she pulled him close to her next to Princess.

"I know, so much like your father … But you still need to apologize" She looked him squarely in his emerald eyes.

Rusty began, "I'm sorry, Princess, for biting your ear so hard." He mumbled. She forgave him and they went back to being best friends again and played less roughly.

The entire family's ears perked up with the arrival of the father. He padded through the cat door into the house. He was a big red-brown tom with green eyes like his son. The mother looked up from washing her face, and smiled at her mate. The tom hopped up on the soft brown couch with her and his kits came hopping after like exited frogs.

Rusty was the first to speak. "Daddy, did you see any of those forest cats today?" He prodded. "Have you talked to any of them? Would you tell us a story about when you were with them?" Rusty babbled on. His father had been gone all morning and now it was late afternoon and the sun was blazing through the window. His father smiled, but his mother was looking ruffled.

"No, I don't want to hear about those dreadful wild cats." said his mother.

"Oh, come on Emily, you let me in the house." The tom teased.

"Pinestar, you were different, you said you'd never go back." She replied, but Pinestar was looking at her sadly with big dewy eyes. "Alright, fine, one story, and don't you think you can keep using those sad eyes on me, you flea bag." She nudged him with a hind paw. Even though she was trying to look angry she was smiling by the end of it.

"How 'bout I tell you about the time Sunfall, you know him right from my other stories? was trying to get Bluepaw and Thistlepaw to stop bickering. It may not sound like a battle, but with them it was. Now Bluepaw had a sister-" He was cut short by Princess batting at his reddish tail. "Stop it, Princess, I want to tell this story." He warned his daughter.

"Sorry," she said, "I just…don't' care about some woodsy cats that run around and fight and bicker all day." the kitten protested.

"No, tell me about any other cats, did you have any kits, in the Clan?" Rusty dragged on, even if his sister wasn't interested in the Clans, he was. To be wild and free and have adventures, that's what Rusty wanted. But at this question everything stopped.

"Yes, yes I did." Pinestar said slowly, and looked a bit awkward with is mate, but she appeared as if it was all in the past and she had no reason to be mad.

"You mean we have a litter mate in the Clans?" Princess whispered thoughtfully.

"Yes, but only and half litter mate, and they are older than you." Said Pinestar softly. His deep green eyes glittered with memories; both sad and happy.

"Who are they?" Rusty asked softly but desperately.

Pinestar looked at Emily and her blue eyes connected with his as if communicating.

"No, not today, maybe when you are older, you already know enough about the Clans." On the contrary Rusty hardly knew anything about them.

"Please…?" Rusty begged.

"No." His father said a bit more sternly.

"C'mon kits, why don't you come and take your nap." Their mother suggested, and now that she had mentioned it Rusty's eye lids were drooping and his sister's furry white and brown face was looking sleepy. He gave up on the simple story and meowed his father good bye. The big tom gave them each a kind lick on the forehead, and whispered in Rusty's ear, "I know you'd make a great Warrior." just after looking sadly into his eyes. Rusty was still puzzling over this and the reason why Pinestar never wanted to tell him about the Clans, as he lay in his cushion. After a while he asked his mother.

"He left so that he could live, he said there was just so much fighting." She meowed carefully after a bit of prodding. "He just doesn't want you to go back there, that's the entire reason he gave up his life in the forest. And I agree with him…we just don't want you hurt." She licked him good night, and Rusty stared out the window into the velvet night. He could almost see past the safe clipped garden, over the fence and into the terribly wonderful forest beyond. He longed to be there and it drove him mad as to why. He could almost hear the rustling of ferns and the cracking of bracken as strong wild cats pelted from bush to bush after prey, their minds racing with exhilaration, and skill, their sleek bodies so hot and strong with the vigor of freedom. _I have a brother in the Clans? _He wondered, he wanted to meet him, surly _he _wouldn't squeal in pain when the play fought? Rusty's green eyes were graying with tiredness and he let sleep overtake his small furry body. But his last thought was if he ever got a real chance to be a wild cat, he would take it.

(I hope you all remeber that Pinestar's mate in ThundeClan was Lepadfoot and one of her kits was Tigerkit A.K.A Tigerstar. And I decided not to use Scourges mother as Firestars mother so I know I got the name Emily wrong)


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 3: A Tiger's Tears**

I looked through the forest of furry limbs to see my father standing in the middle of the camp; the entire Clan was looking as if every kit in the nursery had died, not to mention battered and bloody from the battle. It looked as if some argument was going on between the Clan and Pinestar. My mother spoke into the muffled silence of a morning devoid of chirping birds.

"Pinestar, what about our kits? Won't you stay and watch them grow up?" She inclined her black head to my sisters and I, they were just tumbling out of the nursery brambles, but I was threading my way to my mother.

I ran to my father, not quite understanding what was going on, all I knew was I wanted him to see how big and strong I was getting. I pounced on his red-brown tail hoping he would play.

But he pulled it away!

Why?

Pinestar looked solemnly at mother. "They'll be fine with you, Leopardfoot. I'm not a father they could be proud of, but I will always be proud of them." My heart leapt with promise, but as his words sunk in I began to understand just a little.

Pinestar looked at me with deep green eyes, eyes I would always remember. "Especially you, my little Warrior." I felt his muzzle graze my dark tabby head. I growled at him playfully, but my father still didn't wasn't to wrestle right now.

I could feel his deep green stare growing sadder on my amber one. "Be strong, my precious son, serve your Clan well." I nodded just as the full reality sunk in.

My father was leaving.

My little heart ached as he padded out the gorse tunnel and away forever. But where could he possible go! And why?

My mind reeled with these things, as my mother pulled us all to her, I could see the sadness, and sudden, wrenching loneliness in her green eyes.

I didn't care about the sudden commotion around me, I would never understand it anyway; something about Sunfall and the Moonstone…I pressed my face into Leopardfoot's soft dark fur. I only had her now, and I knew that where ever my father had left us too, whatever path he had chosen, I would never go down it. "_Be strong, my precious son, serve your Clan well." _I would be strong, and I would lead this Clan one day, I vowed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Brothers, and Enemies 'Till Death**

His tortured ragged dark body was outlined silver by the silent moonlight beaming down on the hollow, his mouth agape in a silent scream of agony, hatred and loss; shining dry teeth that had ripped the throats of so many he loved, and more he had never known. His amber sun-chilling eyes were closed to this life, to see things the stony ginger tom who was staring at him could never imagine.

Firestar felt the lifeless only his soft orange fur rulfing in th breeze was movieng. The cold blood of his enemy was sickly seeping into his paws. His frame was stony with emotions he could not control, nor understand. He had wanted this cat dead for so long, but now as Firestar stood, his green eyes staring at the angry rip in Tigerstars belly, he didn't know what to feel.

Firestar flexed his claws in horrible lavish at the death of his enemy filled his pelt for a moment before his sorrow and guilt came back.

He should have been the one to kill Tigerstar, not Scourge! It was his destiny, his duty to StarClan, and he had failed them!

He looked to the disapproving flecks of light in the reaching sky above him.

Now, in another two sunrises he would lead his, and all the Clans to slaughter. Firestars heart twisted temporally at the thought of Sandstorm and Graystripe lying in a dark, velvet pool of blood like Tigerstar.

He had hope though; if StarClan and all the other Clans fought with all their wild hearts they could beat back all those BloodClan cats. And this had been his destiny as well. Hadn't it?

He looked sadly down at the big tom's body again. So much could have gone right with him, but so much went wrong. Firestar never knew what had driven Tigerstars mad quest, accept for ambition, he had no idea what had made the dark tabby so stone hearted.

But he felt even he deserved all he got with the pain of those cats and dogs teeth ripping him apart, and if ShadowClan didn't have the respect to bury their old leader then…

Firestar grabbed Tigerstars cold scruff and dragged him into the bushes away from the hollow where he had been killed.

As the fiery tom scraped some ferns and dirt over the once powerful body, he felt as if he should say something, like there was an old, invisible bond between the two foes he could not deny, nor believe.

He ignored it.

As Firestar rose to leave and head back to ThunderClan, he looked back at Tigerstars loose mound for a tense moment. In a hoarse whisper he said. "May you find what StarClan deems you worthy."

Firestar didn't know what it meant or why he said it, but he said it any way. He finally turned back onto the ferns toward ThunderClan territory where he belonged, his brother's blood still gleaming on his paws.

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Ok, I know that was a short story, only three chapters, but it didn't need to be long. Hope you enjoyed this short tale from a grumpy elder.


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